Class of 2012: For Klahowya grad, politics might be in future

Boyd Wolking, a 2012 graduate of Klahowya Secondary School, spent three years as the student representative on the Central Kitsap School Board. On his last day, he posed with board members and the superintendent. From left, Christy Cathcart, Eric Greene, Chris Stokke, Wolking, Bruce Richards, Mark Gaines and Superintendent Greg Lynch.
Submitted photo

Boyd Wolking

Angela Dice

SILVERDALE - Name: Boyd Wolking

School: Klahowya Secondary School

What's next: Harvard University, where he plans to study government

In 30 or 40 years, this might be home of U.S. President Boyd Wolking. Or maybe Sen. Wolking or state Rep. Wolking.

That, of course, is pure conjecture.

High school graduation is a little early to know that, and Wolking graduates from Klahowya Secondary School this weekend.

But he does plan to concentrate his studies on government at Harvard University, and maybe get a certificate in Russian while he's there.

"Why not learn something new while I have the chance?" he said. Russian would be his fourth language, after English, Flemish and French.

He loves campaign work. At least right now, he thinks he wants to run for a political office someday, though at what level he's not sure yet.

He has an interest in earning a law degree.

Working for the U.S. Department of State also appeals to him.

Maybe now you're beginning to see why some people get the idea that "President Wolking" isn't far-fetched.

After three years on the Central Kitsap School Board as a student representative, a school board member seemed only half joking as he mentioned it during the board's last meeting with him.

"I really do believe that Boyd is one of those students that we can say, 'I knew Boyd when he was only a senior and junior in high school,'" board President Chris Stokke said later. "I know he'll do great things."

His mother, Margo Wolking, said the idea first came to her from Boyd himself when he was in elementary school.

The Navy family had recently moved from Belgium.

There, he went to Belgian schools — in addition to three evening hours of American-style home-schooling — where he learned to speak Flemish better than English, learned some French and learned about monarchy-style government.

"He learned about the kings and queens, and when he came back here and saw how different (government) was, he talked about that a lot at home," his mother recalled.

At Silverdale Elementary, they must have been discussing the election that year, she said. He wrote a letter to the president asking why sixth-graders couldn't vote. He got a standard reply from the White House, but he was still pretty excited, she said.

"He told me then, 'I think one day I'm going to be the president or something in the political world,'" she said.

He has a long way to go, but he's come pretty far, something he credits to family and school mentors.

He called his mom "one of the smartest people I ever met."

But his mother flatly denies that the success of Boyd and her other children had much to do with her.

"I think you do what you can to raise your kids the best way that you can, but they are who they are," she said.

Wolking has been the kind of person who stayed interested in government and excelled in school.

He said his father encouraged him to be involved, and their differing political views sometimes made for rousing dinner conversation.

He had to keep up with three older siblings, all of whom were valedictorians or salutatorians of their high schools, including a sister and brother who also went to Klahowya.

"As the youngest, I had to struggle to keep up" with sometimes cerebral dinner conversation, he said.

He believes that, and parents who never let them be lazy, is what pushed him to try a lot of different things in school.

He took 14 Advanced Placement classes.

"The idea of not taking an AP class when it's available to me seems like kind of a waste of a year," Boyd said.

He was a leader in Key Club, Honor Society and student government. He played tennis. He tutored kids at Green Mountain and raves about the teen mentor program that allowed him to do so.

He loves travel, fondly recalling when his family packed up a car and drove all over Europe.

He went to China for a month the summer after his sophomore year with Stanford University's Junior Statesman of America program, and with support from Silverdale Rotary and The Paul Linder Foundation. He toured the Great Wall, walked the streets of small neighborhoods and ate a scorpion (it was delicious, he said).

"The whole feeling that you're not in your element and someone else is, and you have something to learn from them is very exciting to me," he said.Last summer, he went to Georgetown University for an international relations and congressional workshop, and sat in the House gallery when Rep. Gabriel Giffords, D-Ariz., returned to Congress for the first time after she was shot to vote on the debt ceiling.

He has a part-time job, but he said he makes sure to take time to have fun, watching movies or playing board games with friends or chatting over a bonfire.

For the past three years, about once every two weeks during the school year, he'd button up a dress shirt, put on a tie and slacks and head to Central Kitsap School Board meetings to fill in board members on upcoming events and answer questions when they wanted a student's perspective.

At other school boards, students often give reports and leave shortly after. Wolking usually stayed the full length of those two- to three-hour meetings.

Superintendent Greg Lynch, who has seen Wolking at board meetings and at various school and Rotary events, described him as articulate and polite, often sounding more seasoned than his age.

"He says few words, but the words that he chooses are always appropriate," Lynch said. "It's just so good to have somebody his age be that well poised."

His time on the school board solidified his interest in government, Wolking said.

He was impressed by the sincerity of a roomful of unpaid board members as well as administrators and others in the meeting who all have the public good in mind, he said.

POTUS might be a long shot.

But, "I have not seen another student since I've been here in eight years that has got a potential like Boyd Wolking does in terms of whatever ... he wants to accomplish," Lynch said. "He has got enormous potential."

Wolking said he doesn't have his heart set on the presidency. It's a "what-if" type thing that involves hard work, meeting the right people and some lucky "X" factor.

"I know that I don't have to box myself in now," he said of what offices he might run for in the future. "But I'd like to think that no matter what area I choose, I'll step up and take my turn to lead. That's one of the big beliefs that my parents instilled in me. ... For a republic to work, like the United States, the citizens have to take it on themselves not just to vote, but to be informed citizens. You can't just rely on other people to lead. You have to step up and do it yourself."